After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal The Black Death As It Happened
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Mar 12, 2026 
Dr Eleanor Janega, medieval historian and podcaster, guides listeners through eyewitness accounts of the Black Death. She explores Boccaccio’s vivid Florentine scenes and why risqué humor turned up during plague times. Conversations cover mortality in dense cities, medieval medical theories like astrology and miasma, and how clothing, clergy moralizing and social reactions shaped responses.
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Three Common Reactions To Plague
- Boccaccio distinguishes three common reactions: abandon into hedonism, maintain normal routine, or withdraw into pious abstinence.
- He emphasizes that his narrative highlights the sensational party-goers while other coping strategies also existed.
Medieval Medicine Linked Planets To Miasma
- The University of Paris blamed a planetary conjunction and corrupted vapours as the cause, combining astrology with miasma theory.
- Their explanation reflects the microcosm/macrocosm worldview tying celestial events to corrupt air that penetrates the body.
Miasma Contains A Kernel Of Germ Theory
- Although wrong about germs, medieval physicians grasped an invisible environmental agent moving on the wind could make people sick.
- The miasma concept carried useful kernels that anticipated later ideas of contagion despite being framed by astrology.
